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Mofilm, a crowd-sourced filmmaking platform, put out a call for concepts for a short film to promote the “burst” feature of HTC‘s OneX phone camera (a very good phone and camera… I had one for a while). As burst mode was designed to take a series of pictures in a row, our idea was to reproduce essentially the first motion picture, which followed the same concept. That first motion picture is commonly accepted as Eadweard Muybridge’s “The Horse In Motion“, from 1878.
Mofilm and co-sponsor Mother Agency awarded a seed budget to a number of concepts, and off we went.
This was one of my favorite projects. In doing research, I visited the LA Public Library and took out magazines from the research area that were over 100 years old, in order to get a first hand perspective and original source media. As well, I visited locations in Palo Alto and Sacramento, California associated with the original movie and experiment. I don’t mind saying it was a somewhat spiritual experience.
From previous work, I was connected to a ranching family in central California that was willing to ride a horse for the project. When it came time to shoot, the horse we wanted was not available, but they did have a pony! Which was hardly as majestic, but the show must go on, and we made it work.
Mofilm picked five winners from all the completed entries. We came in 4th place.
In the end I did feel a little constrained by some of the corporate requirements of the contest, and my lack of experience at the time led to an end product a little stiffer than it could have been. One particular requirement was for the filmmaker to insert their own name as an endorsement, and I didn’t mind endorsing the product at all, but couldn’t see the concept working because I didn’t and still don’t feel like a person whose endorsement anyone would follow. I’d rather sink behind the scenes and keep the spotlight on the people and the action on camera. That said, I did do the voiceover, and was happy with the rest of the execution. Other people seemed to like it too!
Mofilm, a crowd-sourced filmmaking platform, put out a call for concepts for a short film to promote the “burst” feature of HTC‘s OneX phone camera (a very good phone and camera… I had one for a while). As burst mode was designed to take a series of pictures in a row, our idea was to reproduce essentially the first motion picture, which followed the same concept. That first motion picture is commonly accepted as Eadweard Muybridge’s “The Horse In Motion“, from 1878.
Mofilm and co-sponsor Mother Agency awarded a seed budget to a number of concepts, and off we went.
This was one of my favorite projects. In doing research, I visited the LA Public Library and took out magazines from the research area that were over 100 years old, in order to get a first hand perspective and original source media. As well, I visited locations in Palo Alto and Sacramento, California associated with the original movie and experiment. I don’t mind saying it was a somewhat spiritual experience.
From previous work, I was connected to a ranching family in central California that was willing to ride a horse for the project. When it came time to shoot, the horse we wanted was not available, but they did have a pony! Which was hardly as majestic, but the show must go on, and we made it work.
Mofilm picked five winners from all the completed entries. We came in 4th place.
In the end I did feel a little constrained by some of the corporate requirements of the contest, and my lack of experience at the time led to an end product a little stiffer than it could have been. One particular requirement was for the filmmaker to insert their own name as an endorsement, and I didn’t mind endorsing the product at all, but couldn’t see the concept working because I didn’t and still don’t feel like a person whose endorsement anyone would follow. I’d rather sink behind the scenes and keep the spotlight on the people and the action on camera. That said, I did do the voiceover, and was happy with the rest of the execution. Other people seemed to like it too!
